Barra da Tijuca

Barra da Tijuca (Brazilian Portuguese: [?ba d? tiuk?]) is a famous borough in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, located southwest of the city on the Atlantic Ocean. Barra, as it is popularly known, will have most of the venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be the first edition held in South America. Barra is well known for its beaches and its uncountable lakes and rivers. Barra da Tijuca is also the name of the economic center of the borough, the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca, classified as one of the richest places in the country and based on the 2010 Brazil Census, it has one of the highest HDI (0.970) in Brazil. Within Barra's region, the Barra neighborhood is believed to be the safest of Rio's upper-class neighborhoods due to its lack of favelas and plentiful private and public security.
Barra da Tijuca is divided into eight municipal districts (officially neighbourhoods): Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, Recreio dos Bandeirantes, Vargem Pequena, Vargem Grande, Camorim, Grumari, Joa, and Itanhanga. Its total area is 165.59 km?. Those born in Barra da Tijuca, or those who live there, are called Barristas.
Barra, as it is popularly known, will host most of the venues of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which will be the first edition held in South America.
Demographic data indicates that the region is the fastest growing county in Rio: 98,851 in 1991, 174,353 in 2000, and 300,823 in 2010.
The neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca is the cultural, economic, and administrative center of the borough.
The region of Barra da Tijuca was originally a huge beach, With typical undergrowth sandbanks. The area full of swamps and unsuitable for planting, remained unoccupied until the middle of the twentieth century, even though there were occasional groups of fishermen who frequented the region.
In the year 1667, The region was given to religious Benedictines, who implanted devices only in the neighborhoods of Camorim Vargem Pequena, and Vargem G

ande.
In 1900, the lands of Barra da Tijuca and Baixada Jacarepagua were sold to the company Remedial Territorial Agricultural and SA, still large land owner in the area, ESTA, among others. The concentration of large tracts of land in the hands of a few was one of the causes of its late growth. Adding to the difficulty of access to the region is the fact that it is separated from the rest of the municipality by large mountain ranges with peaks ranging from 800–1200 meters.
The effective occupation of the area took place initially by its two ends, both in current Jardim Oceanico and in Recreio dos Bandeirantes. A bridge was then built by private initiative over the Tijuca Lagoon to serve the area's new inhabitants.
The hallmark of the early development of Barra da Tijuca, however, occurred in the administration of Governor Negrao de Lima, the former governor of the state of Guanabara, who commissioned the planner Lucio Costa, an urban designer for the region. The Masterplan for Barra in 1969, was similar to the Masterplan of Brasilia. It was inspired by American urban planning style with wide boulevards and large open spaces, which definitely marked the beginning of the peculiar lifestyle of Barra.
In the 1970s the Lagoa-Barra highway was built, which allowed a greater development since it reduced the time to go to the South Zone of the city of Rio. At that same time, big planned condominiums which inspired "the new way of life", how it is commonly called, were developed in Barra, such as the condominiums Nova Ipanema and Novo Leblon.
In the 1990s, another large urban development that enabled better connection with the North Zone of Rio was the creation of the Yellow Line, an expressway linking Barra da Tijuca to the Galeao International Airport. Since then, the growth of Barra da Tijuca has been characterized by large inflows of people from all parts of the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro looking for the "paradise city".